U-he Diva soft synth tutorial – Brass bounce

The third in a series of bite-sized tutorials aimed at users of u-he’s latest synthesizer, Diva. The sounds made in this video certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste – they’re all typical old synthbrass! However, the point is to show several different methods of getting similar results, even with a limited set of modules.

So let’s bounce…

Method 1 starts with the usual synthbrass settings, but we soon run into the problem of not having enough envelopes for VCA, VCF cutoff, and pitch modulation at the beginning of each not. So LFO2 is used for cutoff, freeing up envelope 2 for pitch modulation.

Method 2 reverts to the usual envelope 2 for cutoff. The LFO takes over for pitch modulation, but in a special way: LFO2’s delay parameter ramps down to the bottom of a square wave (set to minimum rate so it won’t cycle). Note that the pitch modulation is also negative — a minus times a minus is a plus.

Method 3 is probably the most interesting one because it uses neither envelope 2 nor LFO 2 for the pitch. Instead, the Gate signal (i.e. note on/off from your keyboard) is lagged, resulting in a smooth attack. And (fortunately or unfortunately) an equally smooth release… but there’s a little surprise at the end.

Take home message: Just like classic analogue polysynths, Diva expects you to make the most of a limited set of synth modules!